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The Celebration of the Gospel

Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 25, 2014

… that we might search for God, and perhaps grope for God,
and find God—though God is indeed very near to each of us.

—Acts 17.27

____ We Gather as The Body of Christ

GREETING

PRELUDE Prelude from Chorale in E Cesar Franck

* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God of grace, be with us
All: Spirit of truth, be within us.
Spirit of love, we are searching for you, reaching for you
Christ, who loves us, come to us, and do not leave us orphaned.
We are in you, as you are in God.
Be with us and within us. Even in the mystery, be with us.

* SONG In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful Black hymnal # 2195

CHILDREN’S TIME

_________ We Attend to the Word

THE WORD IN SONG Walk Together Children arr. Moses Hogan

PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God be with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, let us confess our sin to God with one another.
God of love, help us to see ourselves with the eyes of love,
to see all that is in us that is loving,
and all that is not loving.
By the grace that we know in Christ,
receive us, forgive us, heal us, and perfect your love in us.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful Black hymnal # 2195

PRAYER OF THE DAY
Spirit of truth, we search for you. Spirit of love, we long for you. Spirit of life, we hunger for your grace. You who dwell within us, speak to us. You in whom we live and move and have our being, speak to us. Without words, enfolded deep in the mystery in which we dwell, speak to us. Amen.

NEW TESTAMENT Acts 17.22-31

[Paul mentions an altar he has seen in Athens, dedicated to “an unknown God.” But God can in fact be known, if we “search for God, and perhaps grope for God and find God.” After all, we are the very offspring of God, “in whom we live and move and have our being.” Faith is not superstition in some unknown heavenly force, but a seeking, loving relationship with God. ]

Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ Now what you worship in ignorance, I will make known to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, the One who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, and is not served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God is the One who gives to everyone the gift of life and breath— indeed, everything. From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God —though indeed God is not far from each one of us. For “In God we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are God’s offspring.’
Since we are God’s children, it would be wrong to think of the Divine Nature as made of gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the work and thought of mortals. God has overlooked our ignorance about this in the past, but now God commands all people everywhere to change our way of thinking and living, because God has fixed a day on which God will have the world judged in righteousness by a human whom God has appointed, and of this God has given assurance to all by raising this judge from the dead.”

GOSPEL John 14.15-21
[Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit— “I will not leave you orphaned”— and his presence: “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” His life flows through us: “Because I live, you also will live.” Therefore we will live with the same love he had. ]

Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask God, who will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees nor knows the Spirit. You know the Spirit, because she abides with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.
Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in God, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me God will love, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

SERMON

SONG I Reach for You Steve G-H

THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
PASSING THE PEACE

__ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World

OFFERING OUR GIFTS
All Creatures Of Our God And King arr: Ken Medema

* OFFERING SONG Glory Be to the Father Blue hymnal #70

PRAYER
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. Send us out for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.

THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD

* SONG Without Seeing You Black hymnal #2206, vv. 1,2

* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE Please stand and sing to your neighbors:
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.

POSTLUDE Trumpet In Dialogue Louis Nicholas Clarambault